Two weeks spent exploring the slickrock benches and verdant canyons of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
  • Entering the huge alcove containing Jacob Hamlin Arch
  • Just downstream from Jacob Hamlin, yet another enormous alcove
  • Another view from inside the alcove at Jacob Hamlin Arch looking upstream
As we wended our way downstream, the alcove at each bend in the river got larger and larger, and the twists in the river got tighter and tighter.  Suddenly, walking into the largest alcove yet, we got our first glimpse of Jacob Hamlin Arch.

  • The enornous alcove with Jacob Hamlin Arch punched through one wall
  • The arch itself is not the largest we'd seen, but its setting was the most dramatic
  • The typical alcove in this section of Hurricane Wash was large enough to shelter a 10-story building.
While the arch itself is compelling enough, it is the incredibly dramatic setting that makes Jacob Hamlin truly exceptional.  Perforating a long fin that forms an oxbow in the river, the arch is situated mid-wall in a massive, nearly hemispherical alcove that completely covers a 120 degree bend in the stream and whose ceiling is well over 100 feet above the river.  The cantilevered overhang of this alcove is so immense that parts of the canyon floor are in perpetual shade.